THE LAST REICH

September 25, 2023

A heinous, co-ordinated plot to attack a series of prominent synagogues, located across five different continents, is scheduled to take place on Yom Kippur – the Jewish Day of Atonement. For that one day of the year, celebrated prayer houses will be packed to the rafters with Jewish worshippers and the results could prove to be devastating. The mastermind behind the attacks is a direct descendant of Adolf Hitler – his grandson, former Republican presidential candidate, John Franklin. Artfully manipulating several fanatical, Neo-Nazi para-military groups across the globe, Franklin is looking to fulfil his grandfather’s legacy and land a major blow against Jews located across the world. 

But the attacks are nothing more than an ingenious smokescreen, concealing a far more sinister plot, which is being hatched in Gaza, with the aid of the leaders of Hamas’’s military unit.. If successful the covert operation could severely unbalance geo-politics in the Middle East, sparking a global war between the Superpowers.

Chief Inspector Nicholas Vargas of The Buenos Aires Police Department and Troy Hembury, the Head of Internal Security for the White House combine forces with senior colleagues at the FBI and Mossad, in a race against time to try to uncover the truth behind “Operation Atonement” and thwart the plan, as the consequences of failure could be disastrous for world peace. 

THE FÜHRER’S PROPHECY

January 1939:

The Führer makes an infamous speech at the Reichstag in Berlin, threatening “The annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”. The vile public proclamation is seized upon by his fanatical supporters who christen it “The Führer’s Prophecy”.

November 1943:

A sinister plot hatched inside Block 10 of the notorious Auschwitz deathcamp is known only to a handful of the Führer’s cohort as Operation Gesamtkunstwerk. It’s a plan originated by Hitler, Himmler and Mengele and now, eighty years later, it’s finally ready to be actioned by the descendants of the Führer.

April 2022:

As the world emerges from a global pandemic, an encrypted zoom call involving five participants, based across four continents, approves a plan that could have unimaginable consequences for the State of Israel. Chief Inspector Nicolas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department and Lieutenant Troy Hembury of the LAPD join forces with Leah Katz, an elite Mossad agent, in a race against time to try and prevent the unthinkable consequences of Operation Gesamtkunstwerk.

THE COUNTERFEIT CANDIDATE

I have always been fascinated by conspiracy theories; the Roswell UFO incident, JFK’s assassination, the moon landings, Princess Diana’s car crash, all come to mind.

But they don’t come much bigger than the one surrounding the apparent deaths of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. It’s a highly controversial topic that has generated many books, articles and documentaries and the truth is that, even today, views differ on what really happened.

As a student, I studied Hitler and the rise and fall of The Third Reich at London University, where I completed a degree in History and Modern Politics. Part of my academic research included reading Alan Bullock’s Hitler: A study in Tyranny and Hugh Trevor-Roper’s The last days of Hitler. I always had a gut feeling that Hitler wasn’t the kind of man to take his own life, but then again, there is a great deal of compelling evidence, and eye-witness testimony, to suggest he did. For the purposes of writing the THE COUNTERFEIT CANDIDATE , I went with my gut. I couldn’t help wondering, “What if….”

The basic idea for THE COUNTERFEIT CANDIDATE has been buried inside my head for over forty years but, it took the totally unexpected arrival of a three-month lockdown to turn it into a reality. Like millions of other people, when the virus struck and the world shut down, I lost all my work and found myself at home wondering what to do. I was a television director, with nothing to direct.

So, I decided to finally have a go at writing the story. I had no idea if I was capable of doing it and trust me, when I say, no one was more surprised than me, that the book finally got written.